The topic of this Oscar-winning documentary affects us all. It gives us a truly accessible account of the 2008 US financial meltdown which triggered the collapse of banks and businesses and led to global recession causing soaring national debts and impacting upon the lives of many millions of people. Inside Job is so lucid in its explanation, so gripping in its interviews of the good and the bad that it has at times the tension of a thriller.

The narration written by Chad Beck and Charles Ferguson and delivered by Matt Damon is acute and insightful. The director went to an astonishing level of research and preparation to be able to interview bankers, financial analysts, journalists and politicians on equal terms. The footage of bankers plus economists/academics pay-rolled by the banks, and politicians who enabled financial deregulation is truly uncomfortable viewing as they squirm under Fergusons spotlight. He deftly exposes the rise and fall of a corrupt industry creating something like a non-fiction drama.

In 2007 Charles Ferguson made the Oscar-nominated No End in Sight about the American involvement in Iraq. Many critics at the time wondered if this was a one-off success from the founder of an internet software company sold to Microsoft in the 1990s, but Inside Job has attracted such critical acclaim and so many awards that Ferguson is now accepted as a director with great skill and intelligence. His latest project is a biopic on wikileaks founder Julian Assange for HBO.

This film is as gripping as any thriller. Aided by some fascinating interviews, Ferguson speaks to many of these economists, who clearly thought they were going to be interviewed as wry, dispassionate observers. It is really something to see the expression of shock, outrage and fear on their faces as they realise they’re in the dock. Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

This smart and confident film, thick with useful information conveyed with cinematic verve, lays out in comprehensive but always understandable detail the argument that the meltdown of 2008 was no unfortunate accident. Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic.

The financial crisis is a subject that’s been waiting for the right filmmaker to come along and nail it. That person is Charles Ferguson He knows how to break down a subject so that it makes fresh sense, to get crucial access to both helpful and hostile interviewees, to corner those running for cover with killer questioning, and to shoot his movies with care and polish. Tim Robey, telegraph.co.uk